FROM BUCK TO BUCK
The “bucking” part of making buckskin was to soak the fresh deer hide in hardwood ashes or lye so
that the outer skin layer and the hair could be scraped off.
Bay Harbor shoreline seepage would do just as well; it is lye’s chemical equivalent, just as strong –
but also contains hazardous levels of arsenic, lead, other carcinogens, making it unfit for use in clothing. Unfit for use
in swimming, fishing, drinking, wading – anything. In fact, it has been OFFICIALLY known as a hazard to public
health, safety, and welfare for over 25 years! Why? Because of the cement kiln dust abandoned there without treatment by the
departed Penn-Dixie Cement Plant.
And in February of 2005 – nearly three years ago, the scientists and enforcers who tend to such matters
in the EPA generated an Administrative Order (not a “mild suggestion” or a “what about –?” –
no, an ORDER) calling for the clean-up of the Bay Harbor Hazard by removing, isolating, or containing the toxic materials.
REMOVING, ISOLATING, or CONTAINING, got it? No mention of squirting it down a hidey-hole in some little nearby town.
The order was issued to the CMS Energy Company, a partner in the development and ownership of the Bay Harbor
Resort, site of the hazardous waste deposits. And what has CMS come up with – a plan requiring the drilling of a hidey-hole
in Alba where the toxic problem can be squirted down into fractured and permeable rock and shale and an active groundwater
system.
In September last year, at an all-day meeting with CMS and a panel of experts and consultants, hosted by Friends
of the Jordan, CMS was offered all manner of help in developing a plan consistent with the EPA order, but in the end showed
no intent to carry out all the conditions of the EPA order, preferring to clout its way along to the hidey-hole method.
The eminent geologist, Dr. Jim McClurg, long-time property-owner on Torch Lake, intimately acquainted with the
geology of the region, points out that bed rock and shale layers in the Michigan Basin – that’s where we live
– were bent down by the weight of the 2-mile-thick glaciers until they fractured. As we’ve all seen in martial
arts displays, once the strong man’s blow cracks the top-most tile in the stack, they all break, one after the other,
just as the layers of shale and limestone have done here.
So, it doesn’t matter that CMS plans to case its hidey-hole in steel. When the toxic water comes out at
the bottom of the pipe, it’s free to flow through the billions of existing fractures in this very active groundwater
system and come into our lives in unforeseen ways, as well as in some very foreseeable ways, such as poisoned water wells,
contaminated streams, rivers and lakes, and heavier Emergency Room traffic.
Please join us in endorsing Dr. McClurg’s request that a meaningful, independent, geological study be
done and publicly reported before there is any pumping of toxic wastes into the ground. Visit our website at http://friendsofthejordan.org, and support our petition that the EPA and CMS carry through with the EPA Order of 2/22/05. Friends of the Jordan will
compile your statements of support and deliver them to EPA, MDEQ, CMS, and to our elected representatives.
It looks as though this time, the buck stops here, with us ordinary types joining in a determined effort to
get things done right. Buckskin, anyone?
Jack Norris
Dr. John Richter, Veterinarian
President of Friends of the Jordan River Watershed
http://friendsofthejordan.org
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